Securing loads...
What are the rules again?

A subject that occupies a lot of thought in the transport world is securing loads

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Securing loads

Within Europe, there used to be major discrepancies in national standards and laws regarding securing loads. That is why it was decided in the EU to establish this in ‘EN standards’ to ensure better uniformity/equivalency for safety. The standard was drawn up in the year 2000 and took effect as of 1 January 2004.

To give every country the opportunity to implement this standard nationally without having to modify all the “older” transport equipment immediately, a timespan of 10 years was set for redundancy. This created a gradual transition.

In short, this means that as of 1 January 2014, all EU countries must satisfy this standard.

In Europe, three standards are very important:

  1. EN 12640: Securing of cargo on road vehicles
    Lashing points on commercial vehicles for goods transportation. Minimum requirements and testing
  1. EN 12195-1: Load restraining on road vehicles
    Calculation of securing forces
    EN 12195-2: Load restraint assemblies on road vehicles
    Web lashing made from man-made fibres

    EN 12195-3: Load restraint assemblies on road vehicles
    Lashing chains
  1. 3- VDI 2700 (Dld)
    Ladungssicherung auf Straßenfahrzeugen Großraum- und Schwertransporte

Loading conditions 

When driving on the road, four types of forces can be exerted on the load. The load must therefore be secured according to the ‘EN standards’ such that the load is secured against them.

  • In the drive direction: Maximum 0.8 FG = 80 per cent of the cargo weight
  • In lateral direction: Maximum 0.5 FG = 50 per cent of the cargo weight
  • Backwards: Maximum 0.5 FG = 50 per cent of the cargo weight